Introduction
The new Act on the Optimisation of Money Laundering Prevention is the culmination of many recent statutory amendments on money laundering. The impulse for this legislative activity was the February 2010 Germany report of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), in which the FATF pointed out many deficiencies in German money laundering law. Germany was required to report on its progress for the first time in February 2012.
The draft act caused considerable controversy: the Federal Council harshly criticised parts of the draft, while the hearings of the financial committee were so controversial that the committee’s final vote had to be postponed. The recommendation of the financial committee was accepted by all parties in Parliament with the exception of Die Linke, which abstained, and the act – apart from a number of provisions, which became legally binding after a three-month delay – entered into force on December 29 2011.
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